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Mythbreaker by Stephen Blackmoore

There have been many, many, many gods during the course of human existence. I’m not talking about just the Big Three (God, Allah, and Yahweh) and the pantheon of Greco-Roman gods. We’ve got the Norse gods (like that hottie of the silver screen, Thor), the Native American deities, and the gods of Africa and China.

Every culture has some greater power that rules the people in some capacity. Whether or not the people of the culture buy what the god is selling is the subject matter for a different magazine or blog. The question here is what happens if all of the gods, ALL OF THEM, are booted from their heavenly homes and are forced to walk among the mortals on earth? Stephen Blackmoore and his latest book, MYTHBREAKER, help us try to answer this question.

Blackmoore introduces us to Louie “Fitz” Fitzsimmons. Fitz has been haunted by voices and hallucinations all of his life, and has used drugs and people to quiet everything in his head. He learns that those voices aren’t him descending into madness, but are the voices of actual gods. He’s a Chronicler, he is the voice of these gods and it is his destiny to tell their stories to make the masses believe. Because what’s the point of being a god if no one believes in you?

Fitz ends up on the run from some of the new gods (Business and The Man), an older Lithuanian goddess, and the Greek God of wine. Each one wants Fitz to sing their songs to the masses and gain more followers (kind of like Twitter, but WAY more powerful). Fitz isn’t sure if he’s ready to commit to one god and goes on the run until he can figure it out. Needless to say, the gods destroy wide swaths of LA in an attempt to reach their potential prophet.

MYTHBREAKER is the second book in the GODS AND MONSTERS series from Abaddon Books. Book 1, UNCLEAN SPIRITS, was written by Chuck Wendig. Blackmoore explores how a modern day Moses would handle his “gift”, and it isn’t very well when you look at the trail of empty pill bottles and one night stands.

Like his other books, Blackmoore writes at a breakneck pace and makes you want to turn the page to find out what happens next. MYTHBREAKER opens at the end of a weekend of debauchery, motors to a scene in a hospital, which is quickly destroyed by a goddess, then into a battle with a very angry angel, followed by a car chase with crazed soccer moms, which leads to a fight with a Greek god at a museum. All of this before Fitz can say “Wait. What the hell’s happening?”

In MYTHBREAKER, we see the true nature of the gods. They aren’t the benevolent beings we’ve been told that they are. Some of them are downright selfish dicks. And that’s just some of the older gods. One of the new gods is out to make himself the new A-1 Numero Uno God in town, and will stop at nothing to make it happen.

No one writes the battles of heaven and hell, and the mortals caught in between, like Blackmoore. When the End of Days do come, I hope that Blackmoore is there to tell the tales of the epic battles. Maybe they are already upon us and he’s the one selected to write the stories.